We’ve all seen the studies that say women earn less than
men, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it is the result of sexism. If you were to
look further into the issue than just the raw dollar figures, you could
probably find an explanation for the disparity other than a general “women are
worth less than men” attitude from those doing the hiring.
For
example (and these numbers are strictly hypothetical), you could take an actual
job title like CEO and say that women CEOs earn only 70% as much as their male
counterparts. But if you get into the numbers, it may be that only 10% of
the CEO positions in the country are held by women. And let’s say that the top
5 companies’ CEO positions were held by men. Often the bonuses they receive for
company performance far exceeds their base salary. So even if a woman worked
for a company with the highest percentage bonus payout and she had a higher
base salary, she would still not be making as much as her male counterpart
because the company simply doesn’t earn as much revenue as the others. In that
scenario, the woman would still show up in a study as earning less money than a
man for doing the same job even though the hiring entity gave her a higher
salary and bonus percentage. Even if the bottom 5 paying CEO jobs were held by
men, the average is still going to work in their favor. So the studies are true
in a way, but it’s not necessarily a civil rights issue where women are being
oppressed. I’ll admit that I haven’t done the research, so I don’t know
what the real reasons are, but I’m just pointing out that there could be very
logical explanations for the differences other than overt sexism.
And now for some actual numbers. Looking at the highest paid models reveals that the top 20 earners are all female, with the top spot
earning $47 million and #20 earning $3 million a year. The highest paid male
model earns $1.5 million a year. So, there's that.
I
don’t really expect Patricia Arquette to be bothered to think about any of
this, though. And to be honest, she should get a lifetime pass based on True
Romance alone.
Still, I have to say to her…
